


Carving Out Our Names

by minkhollow



Series: protag!Kanji [3]
Category: Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, protag!swap, social link get
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-02
Updated: 2014-12-02
Packaged: 2018-02-27 20:46:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2706179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minkhollow/pseuds/minkhollow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ai's not the only one who's been summoned to the guidance counselor's office.  But maybe today, that's not such a bad thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carving Out Our Names

**Author's Note:**

> Shaking things up a bit with a social link! This is set just after spring midterms, and the day after the TV crew rescues Naoto (yes, Naoto).

Not even two weeks after midterms and the guidance counselor’s already got Ai in his sights. Her dad is going to be _thrilled_.

She sighs, re-crossing her legs in the damn uncomfortable chair outside the counselor’s office, and pulls out her phone. What a waste of a perfectly good afternoon, especially since it’s actually sunny. He could at least have the decency to yell at her on a rainy day, when there’s fuck-all to do.

It’s not that she dislikes school, as such; it’s okay. But it’s not what pretty girls do with their time. It’s not how pretty girls land a guy and make something of their lives. That’s what all the magazines say, anyway, and given where she started, she sees no reason not to take their word for it. But everyone still keeps her at arm’s length, unless they think she’s easy – and then they’re uncomfortably close.

A shadow falls over her, and at first Ai thinks the poor bastard in the counselor’s office before her is done – only to look up and find Tatsumi looming over her. Even for a first year, he looms over pretty much everyone, but it still takes her a second to find her voice. “Can I help you?”

Tatsumi waves a hand at one of the other chairs. “This seat taken?”

“Help yourself. What’d you do to get shipped down here?” She wouldn’t be surprised if it was a fight, but that’s mostly because he has a reputation around town for getting into them. It’s also no secret that he’s been in school maybe half the year to date; that could do it on its own. Silly adults seem to think that just because you test into a high school, you have to show up every day.

“Apparently sleepin’ through class is a mortal sin now or something. Least, it is if you’re King Moron.” Tatsumi flops into a chair two down from Ai; when she looks closer, she can see dark circles under his eyes that weren’t apparent when he was looming.

“Is there anything that _isn’t_ a mortal sin to him? You’d think he’d be thrilled you bothered showing up.”

“No kidding. I seriously coulda stayed home and slept all day, yesterday was… well. It was a rough day.”

Ai’s curious, but Tatsumi’s tone is very ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ so she doesn’t think asking’s going to get her anywhere. Instead, she goes back to fiddling with her phone; Tatsumi just sits there, occasionally half-reaching for his bag before he sits back again.

After a few minutes, she sighs. “You know what, screw this. Wanna go somewhere?”

Why she’s inviting out Tatsumi, of all people, she can’t quite say. He’s not her usual type by any means; even left to her own devices she’s not particularly fond of ‘big scary delinquent,’ and he fits that to a tee. Maybe it’s because they’re in the same terrible boat. If she ditches, it wouldn’t be fair to abandon him to the guidance counselor’s tender mercies.

Tatsumi eyes her for a moment. “Maybe. Where’d you have in mind?”

“Okina. Last time I was there, Croco Fur was still completely picked over from Golden Week, but they’re bound to’ve restocked by now.”

“Okay. We might as well earn the lectures, right? Long as we can go to—” He stops midsentence, suddenly very interested in the floor; is he blushing? “Never mind.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“I said never mind,” Tatsumi snaps. “We gonna get out of here before the counselor comes lookin’ for you or not?”

***

Croco Fur is indeed restocked, but unfortunately, the new season hasn’t kicked in yet, so Ai already has everything in the current style that she wants. Well, this shopping trip was a bust.

“Hey, I’m thirsty,” she says to Tatsumi, who’s looking at a scarf like he can’t decide whether it’s good or not. “Go get me a soda.”

He doesn’t even look at her. “I look like I’m made’a money to you? Go buy your own damn drink.”

The response is so blunt that Ai can’t help laughing. “I can’t think of the last time a guy said something like that to me. Maybe you’re not so bad after all. Come on, I think I’m done here anyway.”

He follows her out of the store without protest; when they’re outside, Ai checks the time on her phone. “We should have a little while before anyone other than the counselor notices we’re gone. What was it you wanted to do?”

Tatsumi looks at the ground; he’s definitely blushing, this time. “I said I’m fine.”

“Indulge me, Tatsumi-kun. It’s rare I go anywhere with a guy who wants to shop for himself, it’d be a fun change of pace.”

If anything, he gets redder. “Craft shop,” he mumbles, so quietly Ai barely hears it over the hubbub of the city. “I don’t get out here a whole lot and… well. They got some good yarn.”

…Huh. She definitely wouldn’t have pegged Tatsumi for the artsy type, but now that she thinks about it it makes sense. His family has a damn textile shop, after all. And he’s probably hung up on it for the same reason she never talks about her life before her dad hit it big in speculation.

“All right,” she says, “but you have to make me something cute with whatever you get.”

Tatsumi looks at her like she’s grown a second head. “What – you… you’re not gonna laugh?”

“Why would I if I get something out of the deal?” It’s a little mercenary on her part, but most of her life is a little mercenary; that’s nothing new. Besides, it’ll make for an interesting afternoon.

When he finally stops staring at her, he takes off in the direction of the craft store almost too fast for Ai to keep up.


End file.
